Under Trump, citizenship and visa agency focuses on fraud

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The head of the agency handling citizenship and visa applications was surprised when he faced blowback for cutting a reference to the U.S. being a “nation of immigrants” in its mission statement. The son of a Peruvian immigrant added language about “protecting Americans” instead.

L. Francis Cissna argued that America is indisputably a nation of immigrants but that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' mission statement wasn't the place to say so. Joseph Edlow, who now oversees the agency, said he hasn’t thought about the 2018 kerfuffle, but it crystallized for many how the Trump administration has changed the government's approach to legal immigration.

USCIS, established with the Department of Homeland Security in 2003, is emphasizing fraud detection, enforcement and vetting those seeking to work, live or become U.S. citizens. Applicants, attorneys and employees call it overkill, while immigration critics say it's overdue. New Trump administration rules range from making asylum protections more difficult to get to disqualifying more low-income applicants from green cards.

Processing times are longer, and the agency’s backlog of cases stands at 5 million. Making it tougher to get permission to live and work in America has had consequences for USCIS itself: its roughly $5 billion annual budget is funded almost entirely by application fees, which have dwindled with the stricter rules. Financial pressures mounted this summer as USCIS narrowly averted furloughs for 70% of its roughly 20,000 employees.

Curbing legal immigration has been a priority for President Donald Trump as he's reshaped the immigration system, arguably more than any predecessor. He’s thrilled supporters with an “America first” message and infuriated critics who call his signature domestic issue insular,...